It is desirable to upgrade existing package sorting equipment to add the capability of detecting, without opening the package or altering its contents, the presence of items marked with magnetic ink. It is particularly desirable for an addressee to give incoming check payments priority attention. Financial institutions, or other organizations and government agencies, can enhance interest accumulation by assigning priority attention to the processing of account payments. Nearly all bank checks currently in use are printed with magnetic ink. Manufacturing standards for such checks are specified by ANSI standards X3.2-1970 and X3.3-1970. Standards for the magnetic ink are given in the American Banking Association MICR specification.
Equipment exists for reading magnetically marked items upon orderly presenting. The object of the present invention is to detect such magnetically marked items in an unopened package independently of their location within the package and of any neighboring clutter, such as staples or paper clips.
Therefore, it is a feature of the present invention to sort unopened packages in an improved manner according to whether or not they contain magnetic ink.
It is a further feature of the present invention to detect the presence of magnetic ink in unopened packages in an improved manner wherein the positioning of the item bearing magnetic ink within the package and the depth relationship of that item to the face of the package is variable.
It is another feature of the present invention to provide a means for detecting the presence of magnetic ink within an unopened package despite the presence of other ferromagnetic items (clutter) also arbitrarily oriented and distributed within the package.
It is another feature of the present invention to provide a means for detecting the presence of magnetic ink within an unopened package where the means for transporting the package does not generate magnetic noise that destroys the accuracy of the data.